How to mine cryptocurrency on an iPhone

We take a look at the first App that allows you to easily mine cryptocurrency on your iPhone.

When cryptocurrency mining is mentioned it tends to conjure up images of large rooms with racks upon racks of hardware being industrially cooled. However, it is possible to mine cryptocurrency from your pocket with an app called MobileMiner.

What do I need to mine cryptocurrency on my iPhone?

MobileMiner is a CPU miner for iOS devices created by a well-known jailbreak developer called Elias Limneos.

MobileMiner takes a little bit of effort to set up, but once it’s up and running requires very little maintenance to maintain. You’ll need to build the project yourself using Xcode and then get yourself a wallet, then you’re all set up to start mining.

The better the processor on your iPhone, the faster it will be able to complete each mining task. We’d really recommend using an iPhone 7 onwards as only the later iPhone models will produce the best hash rates.

While Elias is a trusted developer, if you proceed with this guide you are going to be installing ‘unofficial’ code onto your iPhone. A level of trust is required here, so if you’re going to proceed then you do so at your own risk.

How to install MobileMiner on your iPhone

You’ll need your Mac for this too.

First of all, you’ll need your Apple ID to be Apple Developer enabled.

Visit developer.apple.com

Go into the Member Centre

Sign in with your Apple ID.

On the Apple Developer Agreement page, tick the first check box and accept the agreement, and hit the submit button.

Create a new Xcode Project and name the product ‘iPhone Miner’. Ensure you’re on a personal team, create an organisation name and make sure the language is on Swift, with Include Unit Tests and UI Tests enabled.

Open up the iOS App Signer and select the MobileMiner.ipa. file, Signing Certificate, and Provisioning Profile from the Xcode project. Hit start, and save the following IPA file to your desktop.

Open up Xcode and select Window, then Devices and Simulators in the menu bar. Into Devices & Simulators page, select your oPhone and hit the ‘+’ under installed apps, then select MobileMiner.ipa file that is on your desktop. The Mobile Miner app should now appear on your home screen.

Go into your Settings > General > Profile & Device Management and select your profile under Developer App, then hit the ‘Trust’ button which will allow it run on your device.

How to configure MobileMiner

There are a couple of options you’ll need to set up now.

Configuration

You’ll need to set up a configuration for each different currency you’d like to mine, and you can swap between these at will. You’ll need to get a Username and Wallet Address which will obtain by signing up for an account with most cryptocurrencies.

The configuration page is fairly straightforward, just fill in the information as required. The ‘Threads’ option will vary depending on how modern your phone is, but a newer phone will be able to deal with a higher amount of threads.

Keep Alive in Background

This function is what allows the app to be useful, as it uses a workaround to ensure that the app will continue mining in the background if the phone is left idle.

This lets the app run in the background indefinitely, although it will drain your battery at a fearsome rate

While there have been other attempts at mining cryptocurrency on mobile devices, this is really the first app that allows you to do it in such an easy and user-friendly way. However, if you’re hoping to make any real money from this, then you may find yourself out of luck – mobile processors just aren’t as powerful as the ones made for PCs, and the electricity cost alone would eat into any profit you manage to make.

Regardless, it’s a fantastic proof of concept and a fun thing to research get into – just don’t expect to be purchasing a yacht from your profit any time soon.